David Bowie was right. There is life on Mars.
Well, we don’t know yet if life exists on Mars.
But we do know that NASA recently discovered flowing water on the red planet.
This is great news for anyone who supports scientific research and progress.
However, discoveries like the one wouldn’t be possible without the work of NASA.
What if there wasn’t enough money available for NASA to function?
Critics of overzealous government spending often point to programs like NASA for taking up too much space in the federal budget each year.
They argue that the government’s money could be used for better things, like making you stand in long lines at the local DMV.
According to NASA’s budgetary request for 2015, the space agency asked for $17.4 billion for the fiscal year, according to Slate.com.
Sounds like a lot of money, right?
Compare this number to the president’s proposed budget for the entire country for 2015, which was roughly $3.9 trillion.
NASA, in comparison, would take up a whopping 0.45 percent of the federal budget.
0.45 percent of the federal budget is a small price to pay for discovering our solar system.
NASA’s research in space has also led to scientific advances that have benefitted many people.
From firefighter gear, to artificial limbs and even baby food, NASA develops a stunning amount of our everyday technology during their projects among the cosmos, as cited by its website.
Some advocates in the space community argue that planetary exploration should simply be privatized and left in the hands of a few small companies, like SpaceX or Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic.
This would take the pressure off of Congress to include NASA in the budget and enable anyone with enough money to explore space.
I fear the moral consequences of allowing this to happen.
By giving the go-ahead to private companies with the most money to send spacecraft beyond our orbit, we are potentially selling access to the stars to the highest bidder.
In the future, would poor people be left on Earth if we colonized other planets because they couldn’t afford a ticket to leave?
That is what I fear might happen if private companies offer to run in the money marathon when NASA can’t.
It’s not very fair to give those who can’t afford it the short end of the stick when they’ve gotten it their entire lives.
What can solve the problem of expensive space research?
I believe the only solution is to form an international coalition of nations dedicated to the space exploration and research.
We already have a partnership with the European Space Agency, Japan, Canada and Russia for keeping the International Space Station in orbit.
Why not include more countries who are interested in space as well?
It might be the only way to invest in a future that works for all of us.
ttfitzpa@indiana.edu
@tfitzwrites
